Man found dead on 'Captain Phillips' ship an ex-SEAL

Feb. 20, 2014
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In this Nov. 22, 2009, file photo, crew members work aboard the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama after the ship docked in Mombasa, Kenya. / AP

by Michael Winter, USA TODAY

by Michael Winter, USA TODAY

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One of two American security officers found dead off the coast of Africa on the ship from the movie Captain Phillips was a former Navy SEAL, according to a service record released to The Associated Press on Thursday.

Mark Daniel Kennedy, 43, of Baton Rouge, La., enlisted in 1995 and completed his final tour of duty in 2008, according to his record, sent in an email by Navy spokeswoman Lt. Lauryn Dempsey.

The SEALs are an elite unit of the military's special operations forces. Kennedy served as a special operator first class, his record says.

The vessel, the Maersk Alabama, docked midday Monday at Port Victoria in the Seychelles, an Indian Ocean island nation off southeastern Africa. Local police on Wednesday said that Kennedy and Jeffrey Reynolds, also 44, were found dead Tuesday afternoon in Kennedy's cabin.

Police offered no information about how the men may have died. Autopsies were scheduled.

The men worked for Virginia-based Trident Group and had boarded the ship Jan. 29. Their deaths were "not related to vessel operations or their duties as security personnel," Maersk Line spokeswoman Meredith Siviter said in a statement.

Fox News reported that both Kennedy and Reynolds were former SEALs. Trident was founded in 2000 by former SEALs and senior Naval Surface Warfare Officers.

The U.S. Coast Guard is assisting in the investigation.

In April 2009, four Somali pirates boarded the Maersk Alabama off eastern Africa but the crew thwarted their efforts to hijack the 508-foot-long ship. The Somalis then seized the captain, Richard Phillips, and held him in a lifeboat for four days before U.S. Navy sharpshooters killed the three pirates holding him. The fourth, who was captured aboard the ship, pleaded guilty to hijacking, kidnapping and hostage-taking and was sentenced to nearly 34 years in federal prison.

Pirates unsuccessfully targeted the ship four more times between November 2009 and May 2011.